NEW YORK (AP) - Demonstrators from across the country are protesting a jury's decision to clear George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of an unarmed black teenager while the Justice Department considers whether to file criminal civil rights charges.

Rallies on Sunday attracted anywhere from a few dozen people to more than a thousand as demonstrators voiced their support for 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's family - and decried Zimmerman's not guilty verdict as a miscarriage of justice.

Police in Los Angeles said they arrested several people early Monday. The New York Police Department said it arrested at least a dozen.

The NAACP and protesters are calling for federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted Saturday in Martin's death.

The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) , an organization representing 34,000 Black churches, is staging a rally today at noon in front of the Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. to protest the verdict in the murder trial of George Zimmerman.

You can watch the rally LIVE in the video player above when it begins.

The Justice Department says it is looking into the death now that Zimmerman has been acquitted in the stat

Protesters also gathered in Atlanta, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., along with a host of other cities.